Thursday, January 24, 2013

facebook meme

This facebook meme was going around, i want to work on disputing a number of the points TBD "So, here's my two cents (which will end up being closer to $1.50 I'm sure) and I'm sure I will regret posting this later, due to the "friends" I will lose while exercising my First Amendment, but here goes." "Instead of posting a meme with a picture and a falsely attributed quote or a made up statistic, I've spent my time researching the gun violence/gun control debate. And I'd like to talk about some of the pervasive themes I've seen lately." "First off, Hitler did not say "In order to conquer a country, you must first disarm its citizens." In fact, Hitler made it his position to enable guns to be obtained more easily. http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/disarm.asp Secondly, the presidents, and I mean ALL of them, and their families, receive death threats on a daily basis. President Obama did not enact the regulations that REQUIRE Secret Service protection for him and his family. If you believe your children are as much of a target as the president's children, then you have a self inflated idea of your position in this world. http://www.secretservice.gov/protection.shtml Thirdly, there is NO law or bill being considered that would allow anyone to come marching into your home to take your legally obtained and legally owned firearms. There are possible laws that are being explored that would require more responsibility on the part of the gun owner or person purchasing a gun (i.e. pass a background check even if buying a gun from a gun show dealer). If you buy a car from a dealer it must be registered (a record of the transfer is documented). If you buy a car from a private citizen, it must be registered. If you buy a gun from a dealer, there is a record of that sale and it is registered. So how is it illogical to require the same for private sales of firearms? Fourth, there are not more people being killed with baseball bats than guns. If you disagree with that because you saw a picture stating otherwise on the internet, then I would like to offer you the chance to buy some oceanfront property in Arizona and I'll throw in the Brooklyn Bridge for free. There is no magical solution for solving the problem of gun violence. THAT is what we need to solve. http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/baseballbats.asp We don't ban cars that are used in DUI related deaths, but we do enact regulations regarding blood alcohol limits, prosecute people who enable a drunk driver to operate a vehicle after serving them, promote a DUI campaign raising awareness and educating drivers on the dangers of driving while intoxicated. All of which has reduced DUI related fatalities by over 40% in a decade. http://www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/drunk-driving-statistics The media is not hiding other gun related stories because they want to sensationalize the problem, they are simply unable to cover every gun death story because there would be an average of 80 of them each day. So they concentrate (unfortunately) on the massacres which I think we can all agree, happen all too often. I find the fact that more children are killed in the US by guns than in the entire Middle East region, very disturbing. I find it disturbing that the NRA blames the rise in violent shootings on video games and then comes out with its own shooting video game (categorized for children as young as 4 years of age) less than a month after Newtown. I find it disturbing that other countries spend in excess of twice as much as the US on violent video games and have a small fraction of the amount of gun related deaths/injuries. I find it disturbing that instead of looking for a solution to a problem like Newtown, there are people wasting their time and energy by trying to turn it into a conspiracy theory. I find it disturbing that guns are the third largest killer of children ages 5-14 in the US. I find it disturbing that a child in America is 12 times more likely to be killed with a gun than the rest of the "developed" world. I find it disturbing that there are more guns privately owned in America than the next SEVENTEEN countries combined. I find it disturbing that all of these statistics are not discussed but fake statistics about a baseball bat death rate are plastered everywhere. I find it disturbing that some people believe that the ONLY answer to this problem is more guns." ME: So it's not relevant that the crime rate is going down? http://factcheck.org/2012/12/gun-rhetoric-vs-gun-facts/ "Dan Gross, head of the Brady Campaign used the number of daily gun murders as proof that “gun violence rates are not” going down. But the rate of gun murder is at its lowest point since at least 1981: 3.6 per 100,000 people in 2010. The high point was 7 in 1993. However, non-fatal gun injuries from assaults increased last year for the third straight year, and that rate is the highest since 2008. Federal data also show violent crimes committed with guns — including murders, aggravated assaults and robberies — have declined for three straight years. Rep. Donna Edwards said that “since Columbine, there have been 181 of these school shootings.” That’s an inflated figure. She used a list of “major school shootings” supplied by the Brady Campaign that included incidents that were neither shootings nor at schools. By our count, the list shows 130 school shootings since Columbine that resulted in at least one student or school official being killed or injured — still unacceptably high, but about a quarter fewer than claimed." Also a lot more people are being murdered with non guns, so perhaps it's not the tool it's people (poverty, glorified violence, mental illness stigame, many other things?) http://www.infowars.com/statistics-prove-more-guns-less-crime/ "Amongst the “top ten killers” in the United States, homicide by firearms is at the bottom of the list, according to figures from the CDC and the FBI." "Despite the fact that it is virtually impossible for an average citizen to obtain a gun through legal channels in Britain, the rate of violent crime in the UK is higher per capita than the US and the highest in the world amongst “rich” countries aside from Australia, which also instituted a draconian gun ban in the 1990′s." MEME: Banning all firearms is NOT the answer, which is exactly why it's not being proposed. This country has enacted laws that didn't work before, so they've been revised, repealed, reformed, etc. It's ludicrous to think that as a society, we evolve, but the laws governing us cannot? The NRA states that the assault weapons ban didn't work the first time. Well, you know what they say, "If at first you don't succeed, f*%k it."." ME: "If armed guards are the only answer to ending school shootings, then explain the VT shooting. Virginia Tech had an entire police department complete with a SWAT unit. Explain Columbine, which had an armed officer on staff. When discussing an end to gun violence in schools, there should be NOTHING left off of the table." I agree armed guards are not the only, or a good answer. Guards and police are there to enforce laws, not protect anyone. "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen." multiple court cases here http://www.firearmsandliberty.com/kasler-protection.html Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981). In fact VT "Our mission The Virginia Tech Police Department strives to enhance the safety and quality of life for students, faculty, staff and visitors through effective law enforcement and proactive crime prevention in partnership with the university community." http://www.police.vt.edu/VTPD_v2.1/home.html MEME: "Ronald Reagan, a huge gun proponent and signor of the Brady Bill, wrote to Congress in 1994 asking them to propose legislation limiting or stopping altogether the manufacture of guns classified as assault weapon. And anyone saying "assault weapon" is a made up term should remember that every word in every language is, in fact, made up." "And yes, criminals don't typically obey laws, but we still have them. Can you use that logic to say there should be none at all? No." ME: I am not, and most of my friends are NOT saying there should be no laws, rather there are MANY gun laws at the federal, state, and in come cases lower levels that are NOT being enforced (such as lying on gun buying form) and should be. Let's use the laws we have before we say they do not work. Or lets tweak the ones that have failed so they might work next time if we find they have a loophole instead of adding MORE bureaucracy. http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/warren/gun-laws-not-being-enforced#.UQE6qmecWSo "At Target World, a Sharonville gun shop and shooting range, assistant manager Jeff Mann told 2 News there were already more than 3,000 gun laws on the books, including those prohibiting those termed as "mentally unstable" by the courts to to purchase guns. "Those gunlaws are not enforced as aggressively as they should be," said Mann." http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-500159_162-555151.html "The "enforce the laws" camp got a boost last week from a study by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation that documents the embarrassing extent to which federal gun laws are not, in fact, enforced. Of the 22 major federal gun statutes, 20 are almost completely ignored. And they happen to be the laws intended to combat the black-market for firearms." MEME: "Let me be clear, I am NOT anti gun. I have nothing against guns or responsible gun owners. I served proudly in the military, I worked in armed security, I've hunted, and enjoy target shooting since I was a kid. And I'm sure most gun enthusiasts are the same way. However, this issue should be discussed logically and rationally, and all I see are comments and pictures that are anything but rational and for the most part, are just viral, inflammatory, unresearched, vitriol. The president enacted 23 executive actions today, of which only 2 have anything to do with limiting the availability of a category of gun or a magazine capacity. The remaining 21 deal with aspects regarding background checks, school safety and mental health system requirements and deficiencies. Will it be a perfect solution? No. Will it help? We'll see. Is it better than doing nothing? Definitely. If we keep using the statement, "It's too soon to talk about it." after each tragedy, pretty soon, we'll never talk about it. OK, so maybe it ended up closer to $2.00 instead of 2 cents. So sue me."

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